


What A Failure Is

by kryptonianmenace



Series: Tourette's [4]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Tourette's Syndrome, tics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:22:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27695519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kryptonianmenace/pseuds/kryptonianmenace
Summary: Mal Bertha was a failure. This much was true.Premise: How different would Mal's life be if she had Tourette's?
Series: Tourette's [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1851046
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36
Collections: All Your Faves Are Neurodivergent And/Or Disabled





	What A Failure Is

Mal Bertha was a failure. This much was true.

Maleficent could handle her daughter having the audacity to help a goblin who dropped their apple. She could handle a daughter who wasn’t invited to a six year old’s birthday party. She could handle her daughter not living up to expectations, because after all, evil takes time to grow.

What she couldn’t handle was the noises.

* * *

It started like this: Maleficent had dealings with Cruella de Vil, and she had dragged Mal along to Hell Hall. Mal was shoved off on Cruella’s boy, and because Mal was a curious soul, she took to exploring, despite Carlos’ whispered protests.

She found a closet full of furs, and with sharp metal on the ground and a boy pleading for her to leave it alone, Mal knew she just had to mess with the furs. After all, she was rotten to the core, and not even the fearsome Cruella de Vil was free of Mal’s rambunctious behavior.

And then her leg spasmed in a twitch, knocking both her and Carlos into the traps, and they cried out.

* * *

She would twitch on and off as she healed, little ones that Maleficent watched with narrowed eyes.

On the third day, Diaval decided he was chatty, of all days, and squawked his heart out. Mal squawked back. And then Mal kept squawking and couldn’t stop.

A month later, Mal was dropped off on Hades’ doorstep, Maleficent warning her to never step foot in her sights again.

* * *

“You’ve got Tourette’s, Mali, I could tell within a minute of you being here,” Hades said, sprawled on his couch as Mal glared at him from the doorway. “Your mommy can’t hack it, having a kid with  _ needs _ , so she pawned you off on me.”

“Why you?” Mal asked with a scoff. “You’re just a has-been.”

“I am a  _ god, _ young lady. Best watch your tone,” Hades said. “Besides, I’m your father, and I won’t stand for my daughter talking to me that way.”

“Mom said my dad was a useless human,” Mal said.

“Mommy lied,” Hades said with a sneer.

* * *

“Ha-- Dad said I have To-- Tourette’s, I think it was called,” Mal said.

Carlos gave a hum of acknowledgement as he scrubbed at the floors. Mal sat sprawled on the floor next to him, not even pretending to help.

“He said that’s why I twitch and make noises that annoy my mom,” she said.

“It’s weird hearing you call him ‘Dad,’” Carlos said.

Mal let out a long sigh. “Yeah, well, he feeds me, and that’s more than I can say for my mom. Might as well call him dad and not Hades.”

“Have you called him that to his face yet?” Carlos asked.

Mal didn’t respond, avoiding eye contact. “Jay won’t let me hang out with him ever since the Tourette’s started. Said I’m too much of a risk when he’s trying to be sneaky,” she said after a long while. There was a small pout on her face that Carlos rolled his eyes at. “Which is why I’m hanging out with you. You’re the only one who doesn’t get annoyed with me. Uma called me a chicken the other day because of my noises and everyone started calling me that, too, even after I dumped a bucket of shrimp on her head and tried to get them to call her Shrimpy. No one even listened to me.”

“It’s a little hard to take you seriously when you’re making bird sounds,” Carlos said. “But I also know what you can do when you’re mad, so you just need to show them that you’re mad.”

Mal groaned and flopped onto her back. “You make it sound so  _ easy.” _

* * *

No matter what Mal did, the Chicken nickname stuck. She tried cutting people down with both words and weapons, she stole, she fought, she manipulated. No one took her seriously.

Mal came to the conclusion that she was a failure. Her mother had called it from the beginning.

* * *

“What ever happened to Evil Queen’s brat? She’s not dead, I would’ve sensed her in the Underworld,” Hades said.

Mal scowled, poking her dinner with her fork and glaring down at her food. “She didn’t invite me to her birthday party, so Maleficent banished her and her mom from the rest of the Isle. She was the first to ever ignore me. Seems she started a trend.”

“Hey, hey, hey, why the death glare? What did your food do to you?” Hades asked, leaning forward to lightly bop Mal on the head.

“No one talks to me because of my  _ stupid _ Tourette’s, but she left me out of her party before it even started acting up!” Mal said, crossing her arms petulantly.

“I talk to you, and so does that de Vil boy,” Hades said, earning an eye roll. “And knowing Evil Queen, it probably wasn’t her daughter’s fault you weren’t invited. Evil Queen probably wanted to challenge Maleficent, and not inviting you was her way of doing it.”

“So?” Mal asked.

“So, challenge Maleficent yourself. Befriend the brat,” Hades said with a wave of his hand. “Make her talk to you. Make her break her banishment. She can’t say no to the child of a god.”

* * *

Evie was Carlos’ neighbor, but the two had never spoken until Mal dragged him along to Castle Across The Way.

“What do you want, spawn? Did your mother send you?” Evil Queen demanded, scowling down at the children on her doorstep.

Mal scoffed. “Maleficent is old news. My dad suggested that Evie would be good for my gang, and I’m inclined to agree. Send her out.”

“I’m not risking my daughter because your daddy told you it’s alright,” Evil Queen said haughtily.

“You wanna piss off the god of the Underworld?” Carlos asked. “Because her dad is Hades, and he won’t like his daughter being snubbed.”

Evil Queen eyed the two with consideration, before stepping aside to let them in. “She’s upstairs.”

* * *

Evie was all excitement, eager to prove herself. Neither Mal or Carlos bothered to tell her that she was a last resort, that if anything, the two of them were the bottom of the barrel.

She learned quickly, though, seeing Mal interact with their peers. 

Carlos wasn’t any better off than Mal, being bullied just as much, if not more. But he and Mal were vicious, fighting back with all their ferocity.

The first time someone targeted Evie, Mal retaliated with a pipe to their leg, breaking it in the process. That was the moment people started taking Mal and her gang seriously.

* * *

Jay thought it would be funny to dare Mal to steal from Maleficent, and Mal was reckless enough to take him up on the dare.

The rules of the dare were simple - get in, try to get the highest valued thing in there, get out, don’t get caught.

Mal waited until Maleficent went on one of her walks around the Isle, slipping past the goblins with years of avoiding them as practice. She still remembered where some of Maleficent’s stuff was, so she made a beeline for the freezer. Spellbook in hand, she booked it out of Bargain Castle and back out to the street.

She met up with Jay, Evie, and Carlos just outside Hades’ lair.

* * *

Having earned Jay’s respect, Mal’s gang was brought up to four. They weren’t the most fearsome group among their peers, their reputation tainted by years of bullying, but they held their own.

* * *

“Mal,” Hades drawled, coming up behind her as she spoke to her friends. “I have a surprise.”

“Dad, you know surprises aren’t a good thing on the Isle,” Mal said, turning to roll her eyes at him.

Hades smirked. “This is a surprise from Auradon.”

The look of disbelief was clear on Mal’s face. “Since when do you care about Auradon?”

“The four of you, get in the lair. We don’t want prying ears,” Hades said.

Begrudgingly, the teens followed him into his lair.

Once they were all inside, he sprawled on his couch and pulled some papers out of his pocket. “It seems the Beast’s kid is to be king soon, and his first declaration is to bring four children from the Isle to Auradon. I stole the summons before they were handed to Maleficent, because I wanted to know who he chose.”

“And?” Mal asked.

“It’s you four,” Hades said. “Lucky you.”

* * *

Audrey made a comment about Maleficent, and Mal just laughed.

“And I would totally care more if Maleficent raised me, but she’s just a washed-up loser clinging to any last little bit of power she can muster up,” Mal said.

Audrey, Ben, and Fairy Godmother didn’t bother to hide their shock as Carlos, Evie, and Jay held back their laughter.

“Who… Then who raised you?” Audrey asked.

“My father,” Mal said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

* * *

Mal was only here because Hades insisted she take a chance on the supposed better life opportunity. That, and she wanted to meet Persephone, the goddess who took over the Underworld for Hades when he was sent to the Isle. But Hades didn’t know that second part.

So here she was, getting to know Herkie, her cousin.

“You are the first person in Auradon to know who my dad is,” she said.

Herkie shrugged. “I don’t really know why it matters. He’s just your dad, it’s not like he’s still going around being evil.”

“Oh? You really think so?” Mal asked.

“He raised you, and you don’t seem that evil to me. You just seem like a normal kid,” Herkie said.

Mal glanced away, watching Jay and Carlos run around the tourney practice she had pulled Herkie away from. “He was probably one of the only normal parents on the Isle.”

* * *

Herkie agreed to pass along a message to Persephone, but that still didn’t stop Mal from being confused when a pink haired woman approached her on Family Day.

“I’m Persephone,” she said, and Mal’s eyes went wide.

“You’re Dad’s wife,” Mal said.

Persephone laughed. “I take it he tells stories?”

“All the time. I’ve been wanting to meet you.”

* * *

Ben invited her and the other Isle kids to play a game of croquet with him, and it was during this game that it all went downhill.

An elderly woman approached Mal and reacted badly.

“Queen Leah, I don’t appreciate you speaking to my step-daughter that way,” Persephone said.

Whispers erupted among the crowd as everyone pondered why Persephone called Mal her step-daughter.

“I’m more than the woman who birthed me,” Mal said. “I’m here to have a better life. I’ve earned that much.”

“How have you earned anything?” Chad asked with a sneer.

“Sixteen years in that shithole you call the Isle for crimes we didn’t commit is more than enough to earn us a better life,” Jay said.

“We’re not our parents,” Carlos said.

And it escalated from there.

* * *

The coronation was a fancy affair. Mal stood in the upper crowds with Carlos, Evie, and Jay, waving to Persephone who stood on the first floor with the other gods and goddesses.

Jane grabbed the wand and Maleficent took her chance, bursting through the barrier and landing in the coronation hall with a cackle.

Persephone used her powers to transport Mal, Carlos, Evie, and Jay down to the first floor, hurriedly whispering to them. “The gods have laws about interfering with mortal affairs and as such we cannot help you more than this. You must stop Maleficent yourselves.”

And they do.

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to make this a character study series. This one doesn't focus a lot on the Tourette's, it's more just a backdrop for how it changes the story.  
> [Check out my tumblr!](https://haljordanisbatman.tumblr.com)


End file.
